Apat, Lima, Anim!

[Four, Five, Six!] - yeah, I'm running out of title ideas.

Thoughts:

• Filipinos are all over the world.  Seriously.  A large percentage of the population is employed overseas.  Actually, when you go through customs in the airport there are special lines for "Overseas Filipino Workers."  I had been really surprised when the two men I sat next to on the plane said they were returning home from Africa and Australia...but now I know it's actually very common.  Unemployment rates are very high here and college graduates rarely find a job in their field of study.  Many of them end up working as operators for overseas products.
• I miss home.  It's not a desperate kind of I want to hop on the next flight out kind of missing home, but just a quiet longing.  The encouraging thing is, spending time with the people here is easing the pain of missing home rather than exacerbating it!  :)
• I've spent at least five days in each barangay conducting interviews or just walking around.  It's been really encouraging for me to recognize people now and to have them recognize me as well.  I like all the smiling and waving.  I'm not naive enough to think that those are representative of me being in the in-group, but it's definitely growing rapport!
• I miss China.  It's strange (but good) to be in a country that's not China and it's strange that China is so close but so far away and it's strange that everybody at OCECC in Florida is preparing to go to China and I'm not.  This is the first STM our church has organized that I haven't been involved in.  I guess you could say I'm a little jealous thinking that in two weeks a number of my good friends will be playing ridiculous games with students and walking miles and miles to have picnics by a river and dancing in the park.  Oh, and playing hangman as a teaching tool.  But don't worry guys, we use umbrellas here for the sun too!  And there's bubble tea :)
• It's still hot.
• I lost my umbrella this week.  Now I have funny tan lines.
• I really like coconuts!  the smell!  the taste!  the everything!  You can make a lot of things with coconuts.  Mm...but I think I mostly like the smell of coconut milk.
• My legs are really sore from running up and down the stairs.  Kind of embarrassing.
• Soccer isn't big in the Philippines :(  No world cup news from me.  I'm a bit bummed.  Actually, really bummed.

Updates & Prayer:

• Praise God I have completed a total of 97 interviews!!  :)  I'm almost finished with week six...still haven't written my interim report, but have finished all my interviews [hm a little backward].  Things kind of didn't go as planned, but that was expected.  I passed out a number of questionnaires to the youth at the church last week, hopefully I will get at least 90% of those back.  All that's left is a whole bunch of writing and coding and analysis and reporting.  And then play!!  I really like that everybody's attitude has been "Finish your research so we can go play!"  I'm good with that.  That's what Chinese people do too!  Work hard then play hard.  But yeah...work isn't over yet.  I still have a ton of writing to do.  I'd appreciate prayer for that.
• Continued prayer for faithfulness and good stewardship of my time.
• Humility in my work and in using my knowledge.
• Wisdom in coding, analyzing, and reporting my data.  I think Pastor wants me to report to the entire church.  Hm.  Yeah, that makes me a little nervous.
• Pray that God will prepare me to serve as RA again this coming semester and pray that He is growing each of the girls on the hall.  Most of the RAs have received a list of their hallmates.  I--have not.  Pray for wisdom for me in discerning God's plan for the hall and how I can best serve him in cultivating that plan and not my own.